Edwards glad to be back with Devils
Arizona State head football coach Herm Edwards is an active person. So when he found himself holed up in a room for nearly two weeks it wasn’t something to which he was accustomed.
He was in more familiar confines on Wednesday morning, leading his football team through a “watered down” practice for the first time since Nov. 11.
The Sun Devils have had to cancel three football games, the most recent coming on Monday when this week’s showdown against Utah had to be scrapped. ASU is working its way back from a coronavirus outbreak that sidelined a good portion of the team, between players and coaches that either had it or had to sit out due to contact tracing.
The school is not giving the exact number of individuals affected.
The Sun Devils (0-1), who last played on Nov. 7 and lost to Pac-12 South Division favorite USC 28-27, are now preparing for a Dec 5 contest against UCLA (1-2) at Sun Devil Stadium.
“When you hear of athletes and just people in general having virus, you’re thoughts are, `How do you handle this?’ Obviously, now that I got it, it is something I don’t wish upon anyone. You think about your life and take just getting up every day for granted, having our health. We have our schedule already planned out, night before, what we’re going to do,” Edwards said in his first address with the media since the outbreak.
“Having to sit in a room for 10-11 days, it was pretty tough for me. I’ve never had that in my lifetime. To stay quarantined for that long a period, the thing you think about, you have those reflection moments. You’re sitting there, laying there, whatever you’re doing, and you think about all those things that are important in your life.”
ASU is not alone. So far this season eight Pac-12 games have been canceled, two in each of the first four weeks. Utah, Cal and Washington State have each had two games wiped from the schedule; ASU is the first to drop three.
Edwards, 66, said he had little contact with his wife or two teenage daughters.